The Hatred of a Knight Will Kill you

The next day, the lost travelers wake up at Argynvostholt. The only disturbance during the night was a small revenant child who, in contrast to the ones the group had dispatched from the church, seemed less hateful and still showed signs of a lingering humanity.

The group quickly returns to exploring the house. On the first floor, they still find a graveyard and a mausoleum, which is protected by a potent magical forcefield. When approaching, a revenant smith standing on the roof warns the group not to mess with the Mausoleum as “he” would not like it. As the party sees no obvious way of disabling the field, they quickly move on and head to the house’s upper floors.

The group initially finds only some relatively harmless magical drapes on the second floor. After searching a few of the rooms, they walk into a bedroom and get startled by a dragon spirit flying up to the third floor. Giving chase, the group soon finds themselves face to face with Sir Vladimir Horngaard, the revenant leader of the order of the Silver Dragon, who clutches the journal that the party was here to find. Unfortunately for the group, Vladimir is totally overcome by rage. He angrily explains how he thinks Strahds’s current situation is well-deserved and any that seeks to overthrow him needs to be destroyed as being overthrown would, according to Vladimir, make Strahds’s current situation better. As the party plans to overthrow Strahd, conflict with Vladimir is inevitable. The party again emerges victorious. In the conflict, Xuza snatches Strahd’s journal without Cinna noticing.

After the fight dies down, the party is met by Sir Godfrey Gwilym, who seems disappointed but not aggressive. He explains the situation in Argynvostholt in some more detail, how the knights were brought back by Vladimir’s hatred, while others were brought back by Godfrey’s love. Unfortunately, in this case, the power of love is weaker than the power of hatred. The revenants who have yet to succumb to hate- including the little boy and the smith- are risking doing so any day now.

Godfrey lets the group know that helping the still peaceful revenants at the mansion might weaken the barrier around the Mausoleum. As such, they spend the rest of the day exploring the rest of the house, learning more about the history of the order of the silver dragon from journals, talking to the remaining revenants, quickly dispatching the final threats, and Xuza learning some….disturbing….things about Strahd from his journal.

Before going to bed, Cinna sends a few messages to Vallaki asking their allies to help gather some information. During the night, Sir Damian Hargrove, one of the revenant knights, asks for an audience. He pleads his case, asking for the group’s help in bringing his ring to (the corpse of) her betrothed. He also states that he is feeling the hatred attack his mind. After hearing Damian, Darren sends some quick thoughts to his own squire before falling asleep.